


This is a Happy End

by 2amEuphoria



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: AFIS the Greyhound - Freeform, Alea Bright, Baby Brightwell - Freeform, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Family Feels, Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Married Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-18
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:28:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22300102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/2amEuphoria/pseuds/2amEuphoria
Summary: A collection of one-shots about Malcolm and Dani’s future with their daughter, Alea, and their rescue dog, AFIS. Not always in chronological order, but filled with fluff.
Relationships: Malcolm Bright/Dani Powell
Comments: 16
Kudos: 52





	1. Abby

**Author's Note:**

> I know I have a million other projects I should be working on, but I had an emotionally taxing week, so... Here, have some happy fluff.

She holds the stairwell with one hand and the empty cage in the other as she makes her way to the ground floor, where they keep their storage.

It’s been nearly five weeks since they woke up and noticed how silent the first floor was. It had taken a few moments for either of them to even guess the reason why, and a few more after that before Dani’s cautious steps over to Sunshine’s corner of the kitchen confirmed that their suspicions were right.

“Oh Malcolm,” she’d said wistfully, “I’m so sorry.”

When one of their dogs passed away, her mother would always take her and her siblings to their rooms while her father put their pet’s unoccupied bed, food dishes, toys and cage away. Now, years later, she’s decided to do the same for her husband while he’s up on their rooftop, overlooking the skyline in silence. 

He’s insisted that he’s fine, but she knows him enough now to recognize when he’s fibbing. Sunshine was a part of his everyday routines- in the mornings before he took his meds, at night before he took a shower. Her chirping had helped him realize he was in the real world and no longer trapped in a night terror. The flapping of her wings and clicks of her nails back and forth on her perch had been part of the ambient background noise that he (and eventually, Dani) associated with being home. And while they’d initially decided to keep her cage where it was- because that part of the apartment would look “so bare” without it, he’d said- its existence had slowly become more and more of a cruel reminder than the décor they’d hoped it’d become.

Setting the cage into its new home in the back of a shelf, Dani lets out a long sigh before heading back up the stairs, hoping she has enough courage to broach the subject that’s been on her mind with him.

_____________

“My mom had a weird way of dealing with losing one of our dogs,” she murmurs, her gaze fixated on a traffic jam instead of him.

“Yeah? What’d she do?”

“Went out and got another one. Usually a month or so afterwards. Once it was two weeks later; that was after her and my dad’s first dog, Charlie, passed. That’s how we ended up with Boomer, the first ‘family’ dog we had.”

“Hmm,” he replies, “your mom certainly had interesting ways of handling things.”

“Yep... She sure did.”

Though the city bustles and booms around them, they both feel the heavy silence from the pause in their conversation.

Finally, Malcolm speaks. “What are you not telling me?”

“You read me too well.” She rubs her thumbs against her tearducts, smiling. “I’m asking you if you’ve ever considered getting a dog. Not to be impulsive like my mom was, but... Now might actually be a good time.”

“Yeah?”

“If we’re thinking about having a baby, it’d be easier to get and train a dog now than it’d be with an infant competing for our attention.”

He turns back to the skyline, nodding as he slipped deep into his thoughts. She watches his face, searching for meaning in any micro-expression, before the laugh lines on his cheeks crinkle with the smile he makes. 

“You’re right,” he says, facing her again. “Let’s do it.”

_____________

“Oh no. If you’re about to shove a picture of a rat that barks in front of my face, you know what I’m going to say.”

He chuckles and walks away from her desk, returning to his own. Their eyes meet across the room; she shakes her head slowly at him as he peers at her behind his phone, a mischievous light in his eye.

After a few fruitless trips to local shelters, they’d resorted to looking for their future family member online. Conflict, however, had arisen between them: Malcolm feels that a small dog was the only suitable apartment option, but Dani refuses to consider anything “the size of a cat or smaller.”

“You didn’t grow up with dogs,” she’d told him one day. “I did. In an apartment, with _big_ dogs. And I had Black Bear living with me-in my tiny studio, mind you-until he died, a year after I joined the force. My family made it work, I made it work, so _we_ can make it work, too.”

“The apartment you grew up in was near a park though! As was your studio apartment! We live half a mile from the nearest park, so where are we going to let a bigger dog run around?”

“Well, we have the rooftop...” She’d shrugged her shoulders at his rebuttal. “Dragon and Mizzy used to get tired chasing each other up and down our hallway- dogs get creative. And half a mile’s not so bad... You’re not winning this one, so stop trying.”

Malcolm’s been persistent, though, sending her daily emails and texts of toy-sized dogs with any heart emoji or persuasive argument he can think of. Unfortunately, though, he’s chosen to spend the rest of his life with a woman just as hard-headed as him.

_____________

They’re at a crime scene when he obscures her line of sight with his phone screen again.

“Malcolm, stop,” she groans, swiping her hand at him. “This is getting old-”

“No, I found a solution!” He laughs before showing her his phone once more. “Did you know greyhounds make good apartment dogs?”

Her brow furrows. “You’re kidding.”

“Shockingly, no,” he asserts. “They’re called ‘forty mile-an-hour couch potatoes.’ They run because they _can,_ not because they want to; they’re incredibly lazy.” His smile grows wider as she begins scrolling through the article he found. “And if you adopt one, they can make sure they match you with one that’s good with kids, so we won’t have to worry about that either.”

“That’s promising,” she mutters while skimming. “We’ll have to find an agency that’s reputable, though.”

“Everybody wins this way! You’ll get the big dog you want, and I’ll finally stop looking at pictures of Chihuahuas to send to you!” She rolls her eyes at him, which only makes his smile grow wider. “Do we have a deal?”

“I guess... Only on the condition you focus more on building a profile than cooing under your breath at puppies on your phone.” She slaps his phone against his chest before proceeding to duck under the CSU tape. “You can wait until tonight to do that.”

“Yes ma’am,” he replies, following her up some front steps with hints of a grin playing at the corners of his lips.

_____________

The entire backseat of Dani’s car is draped in blankets. Every floor of their apartment has plastic covers over each electrical outlet. The hardwood floors have been retouched in an effort to keep them from getting scratched up. In front of the fireplace, an oversized memory foam dog bed rests, awaiting its future occupant.

She’s coming home with them today. 

Her name is Abby- that’s what her foster family’s called her, at least, because she won’t answer to it. They tell Dani and Malcolm they’re free to call her whatever works. She’s two and a half years old, having been taken off the track early since she had less of a prey drive than her competitors did. This, however, makes her the perfect family pet: her foster family includes a rambunctious toddler and two other young children she isn’t interested in chasing. 

She’s timid, immensely so; it’s anyone’s guess what she experienced during her racing career. But due to Dani’s years of experience and Malcolm’s insistence that they get a dog that truly deserves a second chance, they go through with the process of adopting her.

Abby shakes the whole fifty minute drive from the suburbs back into the city. Dani debates on pulling over numerous times because of how close she is to crying at what she’s seeing in the backseat.

“Malcolm,” she finally manages to speak, “she’s terrified. We need to bring her ba-”

“Dani, it’s alright.”

“‘It’s alright?’ Look at her, she’s going to have a heart attack... She doesn’t trust us-”

“-She doesn’t trust us _completely,_ not yet. That doesn’t mean she never will.” 

Dani shakes her head, but Malcolm twists his body to face Abby’s quaking frame. His cautious hand extends a few feet away and remains stagnant a few inches from the light blue muzzle they decided to keep on her, “just in case.” 

Abby considers his offering for a few moments before pressing the muzzle against his fingertips, nose inspecting him. She then slides her head over his palm until he can scratch her jawline.

“Good girl,” Malcolm whispers, his eyes flicking between her and Dani, who’s in awe of what’s transpired. “See?”

Dani swallows. “I just hope it gets better. For her, for us.”

Malcolm nods, turning back to Abby, who’s now blinking slowly as he rubs over the her ear. “Trauma’s a funny thing,” he starts. “Makes you not want to give anyone a chance, if you can’t decide whether you can read them. Sometimes, though, you hear a little voice in your head that says it’s okay to give them a chance, and you’re thankful you listened to it.” Abby scoots forward to let Malcolm bring his hand under her neck, and he smiles.

“I took a chance on you,” he says to Dani. “I didn’t trust you completely at first, but that changed, clearly.” She’s not sure whether to laugh or start bawling. “Abby’s no different. She just needs time with us, and patience, and a lot of love... And maybe a couple months to understand your sass is actually endearing, too.” Dani lets a tearful giggle escape her. “But she’ll be just fine, Dani, I promise.”

Abby edges forward to rest her muzzle on the center console between them. After a moment of hesitation passes, Dani brings a hand off the wheel, and Malcolm guides it to rest on top of Abby’s head. The dog’s forehead is soft and radiating heat, and Dani nearly chokes on a sob as Abby leans into her touch. 

“You’re right,” Dani whimpers, her fingertips etching circles around Abby’s eyebrows. “She’ll be fine. She’s got us.”

Malcolm rests his hand on top of hers, and all three remain frozen as they are as the city comes into view before them.


	2. Shiver

“Daddy, Momma’s hands are cold again.”

Malcolm felt a tug on his pant leg as he hung up his jacket. Three pairs of eyes stared up at him: his daughter, her hands around his wife’s wrists; Dani, who had tried in vain to unbundle their 5 year old’s scarf; and AFIS, her tail thumping against the wall as her eyes flashed between the three members of her “pack.” They were all huddled together on the floor around him, snow sliding off curls and fur and eyelashes, all three shivering as they looked up at him expectantly.

His family. His _girls._

“ _Again?_ ” He gasped, sarcasm dripping in his tone as he knelt down to join them. He took Dani’s waiting hands into his and breathing over her fingers. Alea’s giggles made her parents’ faces light up and AFIS stutter-step with excitement. It hadn’t taken her long to pick up on the running joke between her parents that her mother’s hands were _always_ freezing, and she found her father’s attempts at warming them up quite comical.

“There,” Malcolm announced, pressing a kiss into Dani’s palm, “all warmed up now.”

“Do me! Do me next!” He chuckled when Alea’s tiny hands clouded his vision, a laugh that he tried to stifle as he playfully grabbed her hands and audibly breathed into them for dramatic effect. Alea tossed her head back, squealing, and Dani shook her head at both of them as she finally had access to undo their daughter’s scarf.

Malcolm pulled Alea’s satin-lined hat off, shaking the excess clumps of snow in front of both their faces. “No wonder yours were so chilly,” he teased. “Were you and AFIS digging a hole to Antarctica out there?”

His joking egged Alea on. “Ooh, AFIS’s feet are cold too, Daddy! Make hers warm too!”

“Alea,” Dani warned, trying to organize the family coat rack. She knew what was going to happen.

“Come here, AFIS,” Malcolm cooed at the greyhound, who eagerly rushed up to him, her long muzzle sniffing his forehead. Malcolm took one of the dog’s booties off and blew gently over her paws, eyeing Alea as he did it; they _all_ understood what this would mean.

As if on cue, AFIS retracted her paw and dropped into a play bow, a live wire waiting to react.

“What?” Malcolm’s voice jumped up an octave as AFIS’s tail danced. “Your paws are _sooo_ cold, AFIS!”

He went to reach for her other front paw when the greyhound jerked away from him, tucking her hind end under herself to skid off around the kitchen island and into the living area. Alea screamed excitedly as Malcolm wheezed with laughter.

“See what you two did? The whole floor’s going to be soaked now. I hope you guys are proud of yourselves.” Dani’s face was stern, but her frustration was quickly broken when her husband and daughter’s pleading eyes turned to look up at her from the floor. AFIS flew in and out of view again, and now even Dani couldn’t help but laugh along with them.

“You three can get away with anything,” she sighed. “Anything.”

_____________

Hours later, after they’d eaten lunch and dried the wet snow from AFIS’s booties off the hardwood floor, Alea was enjoying a back rub from her mother as she lay between her parents on the couch. All three cuddled under the warmth of a blanket while AFIS lounged at their feet. _Bambi_ played on the TV in front of them, though all four pairs of eyes were intermittently distracted by the falling snow in the windows.

Malcolm was always sensitive to Alea’s reactions, particularly to heartbreaking scenes in movies; she’d inherited her curiosity from him, but also his deep sense of empathy. As Bambi and his mother took off through the clearing to escape the hunter, he devised a way to distract her from the inevitable.

“Wow Momma, your _feet_ are cold, too,” he professed after bumping Dani’s feet with his own. Dani shot him a confused look, but within seconds understood his ruse. 

“Momma’s feet get cold, too?” Alea piped up, craning her neck to face him. 

“ _Always_ ,” Malcolm replied. “So you know what that means?”

“Malcolm, don’t you dare-”

Dani’s protest came too late, because he’d already grabbed her foot off the floor and began breathing against her toes as loud as he could. The combination of Dani’s scream, AFIS’s excited woof and Alea’s shocked laughter managed to overpower the sound of the gunshot coming from the TV.

“Malcolm, _stop!_ ” Dani cried between fits of giggling. “No- I mean it! I’m going to kick you in the face. St- Stop it!”

AFIS had taken off to zip around the first floor, Dani was _definitely_ going to kick him in the face now that he’d begun breathing hard into the sole of her other foot, and Alea was crying tears of laughter instead of sadness, Bambi’s plight completely forgotten in her mind. 

Whatever it took to make his girls happy, he was ready to do it.


End file.
